Speech #500108080

Will they answer why during that long period of depression. when hundreds of thousands of men were out of employment and seeking work. it was necessary to import. as was done under this law. large numbers of European laborers? The fact that this statute remained in force nearly twenty years. eighteen after the war had closed. and that every effort to repeal it in the interest of American labor was thwarted is sufficient to satisfy the most skeptic person that it was fashioned and framed in the interest of the coatractor and manufacturer. From the time of the enactment of this law till its repeal over 6.500.000 immigrants came to our shores. How many of these left their native land and came to us voluntarily upon their own resources because of their admiration for our institutions. and how many debased and vicious characters were brought here under. this contract system can not be told. Laborers were imported under the provisions of this law up to the time of its repeal. and the statutes now in force prohibiting the same are being evaded in every possible way by the men who cry loudest "protection to American labor!" The Republican party. supreme in all the Departments of the Government. was cognizant of the fact. but no step was taken to protect American labor from this competition. Dump all the paupers and criminals of Europe and all the Mongolians ofAsiain here. What cared the manufaicturers? Labor was made more dependent and wages cheaper.